GENEVA, December 11. /TASS/. The 2034 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Saudi Arabia, the world’s governing body of football, FIFA, announced on Wednesday during its online format Congress Conference.

Saudi Arabia was the sole candidate submitting a bid to host matches of the most prestigious global football tournament in 2034.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The matches will be played in 16 cities across the three continents. For the first time, 48 teams will battle it out at the FIFA World Cup. At all previous World Cup's, only 32 teams competed.

The FIFA World Cup is held every four years. The inaugural event was hosted by Uruguay in 1930.

In 2022 Qatar hosted the most recent FIFA World Cup and it was held between November 20 and December 18 at eight stadiums in five cities across the Persian Gulf country, namely in Doha, Lusail, Al Wakrah, Al Khor and Al Rayyan.

Russia hosted its first and only FIFA World Cup in 2018. The championship took place at 12 stadiums in 11 cities across Russia, namely in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.